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PROFILEDileep was born Padmanabhan Gopalakrishnan on 27 October 1968 in Edavankkad, Aluva, Ernakulam district, Kerala. He studied in S.N.V Sadanam School & Vidyadhiraja Vidya Bhavan High School, then joined Aluva U.C. College, and then transferred to Maharajas College, Ernakulam. His talent for acting was not known in school and college where he rarely won any accolades or merits. Gopalakrishan was a below average student. During 1985–1987 he tried to perform as a mimicry artist in UC College but was not successful. On joining Maharajas College for a B.A. in Economics in 1989, Gopalakrisnan started to take mimicry seriously. Mimicry was only getting its roots in Kerala at the time. He later went on for a M.A. in History.Dileep is married to actress Manju Warrier. Their marriage created a controversy on whether married heroines have to leave the field or not as Manju Warrier was the leading female actor in the Malayalam cinema during the late 90s. She chose not to act after marriage. They got married on 20 October 1998 at the Aluva Srikrishna Temple. The couple have one daughter - Meenakshi.Dileep also owns a restaurant named Twenty:20 Food Mall in Padma Cinemas at Kochi(MG Road) He lives at Deshom in Aluva. Dileep started his career in a troupe called Kalabavan, working as a mimicry artist. Later he got a chance to be the assistant director to Kamal. While being an assistant director, Dileep did some small roles, debuting with just a small scene in Kamal's Ennodu Ishtam Koodaamo (1992). He was then brought up by actor Jayaram. He recommended his name to many directors. The film Manathe Kottaram (1994) gave him the first break and his screen name Dileep came into place through the character of the same name that he played. Other minor roles during this time includes Joshi's Sainyam (1993) and Sibi Malayil's Sindoora Rekha (1995).By the mid-90s he started getting more prominent roles. He played a supporting role in Sathyan Anthikkad's Thooval Kottaram (1996). He also did another supporting role in the Jayaram starred film Swapna Lokathe Balabhaskaran (1996). The film Sallapam (1996) was a turning point in his career, with the commercial success of the film he started becoming noted as an actor. He plays the lead role in Kamal's Ee Puzhayum Kadannu (1996). Both Sallapam and Ee Puzhayum Kadannu had him co-star with his wife Manju Warrier. He did a supporting role in I.V. Sasi's Varnapakittu (1997). It was playing Unnikrishnan in Raffi-Meccartin's Punjabi house (1998) that made him popular as a comic actor. Another interesting role of that time was Ommanakuttan in Meenathil thalikettu (1998). His first Priyadarshan film was Manham (1999). A noted film by the end of the decade is Lal Jose's Chandranudikkunna Dikhil (1999) where he co-starred with Kavya Madhavan. Some of his interesting tragedy films in the early 2000s include Mr. Butler (2000), Darling Darling (2000), and Ee Parakkum Thalika (2001). A major commercial success was Rafi-Meccartin's Thenkasipattanam (2000), where he co-stars with Suresh Gopi and Lal. A. K. Lohithadas's Joker (2000) did very well as well, Dileep was noted for playing Babu. With the commercial success of such comedy-melodramas, Sibi Malayil's Ishtam (2001), Aku Akbar and Aby Jose's Mazhathullikkilukkam (2002), and Sasi Shankar's Kunjikkoonan (2002), Dileep had established himself as a commercially viable actor. He won the Kerala State Film Special Jury Award for playing Kunjan in Kunjikkoonan. It was playing Madhavan in Lal Jose's Meesha Madhavan (2002) that made a star out of Dileep. It was quite different from his usual slapstick roles. He later went on to play in Shafi's Kalyanaraman (2002), Jayaraj's Thilakkam (2003), and Johny Antony's C.I.D. Moosa (2003) (which he produced himself). He also produced and starred in T. V. Chandran's critically acclaimed Kadhavishesham (2004). His comic timing and dialogue delivery in films made him very unpopular among the Malayali audience. He is known by critics to have brought about the demise of slapstick comedy in Malayalam cinema which till then was known to be realistic and effective. Though there is criticism from certain quarters that he has been typecast in slapstick comic roles. In 2004, he starred in Priyadarshan's Vettom. His real life role as a transvestite man from the family of fishermen in Lal Jose's Chanthupottu (2005) won him many accolades, including the Special Jury Award of the Kerala State Film Awards. He fared as an action hero in Runway (2004), Kochirajavu (2005), Lion (2006), Chess (2006), Don (2006). Critics and audiences alike have responded badly to his performance in Shaji Kailas's Don. He played the athlete Arjun in The Speed Track the debut of director Jayasurya. His second film with the acclaimed director Sathyan Anthikkad, Vinodayathra, was released in April 2007. It is one of the appreciated Malayalam movies of the year 2007. He also had the chance to play in Blessy's Calcutta News (2008), though this film wasn't as well received compared to Blessy's previous films.Dileep produced Joshi's Twenty:20 (2008), which is considered to be the highest-grossing film in Malayalam cinema. In the year 2009, he has a good start. His film, Crazy Gopalan performed very well at the box-office compared to his other movie Colours which only did an average performance. Although the much awaited "Moss N Cat" directed by veteran Director Fazil didn't perform that well at the box-office, his other film "Passenger" directed by debutant Director Ranjith, where he starred along with mamta mohandas and Sreenivasan was a runaway success. Dileep is at the peak of his career and his latest films are Siddique's Body Guard & "swantham Lekakhan".